The U.S. budget process lies at the core of U.S. political dysfunction because it provides too many points of entry for the logic of collective action. It cannot be changed fundamentally, but it can be reformed at the margins.

Francis Fukuyama is a senior fellow at Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law and author, most recently, of Political Order and Political Decay. He is also chairman of the editorial board of The American Interest.